[104] The Editor of Chaucer's Works before mentioned, remarks, "that _a_, in composition with words of Saxon original, is an abbreviation of _as_ or _of_, _at_, _on_ or _in_; and often a corruption of the prepositive particle _ge_ or _y_." According to this writer, _a_ is any thing and every thing; it has so many derivations and uses, that it has no certain derivation or meaning at all. In the phrase _a coming_, _a_ seems now to be a mere expletive; but otherwise _a_, _one_, and _an_ have the same meaning in all cases. [105] Lowth's Introduction. Tit. verb. [106] _Run_, like many other verbs, may be used either transitively or intransitively. Simply _to run_, is intransitive; _to run a horse_, transitive. [107] Lowth observes a distinction between the verb _to will_, and the auxiliary, _will_; the first being regularly inflected. _I will_, _thou willest_, _he wills_, and the latter, _I will_, _thou will_, _he will_. But altho this distinction actually exists in modern practice, yet the words are, in both cases, the same--derived from the same root, and still retaining nearly the same meaning. [108] _If I were_, _thou wert_, _he were_, in the present hypothetical tense of the subjunctive mode, are not used in the indicative. [109] It has been before observed, that the common people have not wholly lost this pronunciation, _woll_, to this day. [110] See the second part of the Grammatical Institute. Appendix. [111] It must be remembered that _be_ is the old original substantive verb, and belongs to the indicative. _Am_ and _art_ are of later introduction into English. [112] Lowth's Introduction, p. 39. Note. [113] "The present tense in English hath often the _sense of the future_; as _when do you go out of town?_ I go tomorrow: that is, when will you, shall you go? I shall go. _If you do well_, that is, shall do well, you will be rewarded: _As soon as_, or _when you come there_; that is, shall come, turn on your right hand: With these forms of speaking, the verb is always placed in the future in Latin, Greek and Hebrew."----Bayley's Intro. to Lan. Lit. and Phil. 99. This critical writer has explained this mode of speaking with accuracy; but it would be more correct to call this form of the verb, an _elliptical future_, than to say, _the present tense has the sense of the future_.